London-based entertainer Tania Zaetta hit pay dirt. At least that what it seems like to some, but to me, it has to do more with integrity and decency. The Australian government has awarded compensation to her after the Defense Department implicated her in a sex scandal.
The Department disclosed today that it finished mediating with Ms Zaetta late last year. It was claimed Zaetta had sex with special forces soldiers at their base in Afghanistan while she was on tour with other performers entertaining troops. Chief of the Defense Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston says there is no substance to the allegations. He’s apologized to Zaetta and says she’s welcome to sing again for Australian troops. Really Chief Houston? After all your department has done to blacklist this woman?
To echo the words of Arianna Huffington, President Bush, during his farewell speech last night, was delusional from the beginning to the end. So, as he was bidding us his “fondest” farewell on television, he was sticking us with a $20 billion, secret middle-of-the-night bailout for Bank of America and an additional government backstop of $118 billion for its assets — all on top of cutting a deal with Barack Obama to give away the second $350 billion of the TARP Big Business bailout. That’s a helluva goodbye. At least Obama has committed, in writing, to using some of the funds to address the current mortgage foreclosure crisis.
President Bush is one of the most unpopular presidents in America’s history, and certainly since I started voting in this country. He was classic Bush, unbowed as he defended his tumultuous two terms in a farewell address to the nation. He claimed a series of successes at home and aboard. Reaching back to the Sept. 11 attacks, when the public rallied behind him, Bush declared the United States will “never tire, never falter and never fail.” Wait, where did the victims of Hurricane Katrina factor into his successes? It was a glaring failure and is still an albatross around the necks of the residents from Louisiana and the gulf coast.
He is leaving office with the highest disapproval rating since Richard Nixon, Bush said, “You may not agree with some tough decisions I have made, but I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions.” Really, President Bush, you hope we can see that you were willing to make these tough decisions? They did not benefit this country one bit. We are mired in an economic crisis of untold proportions and an unclear duration.
It is rather tragic, that he had to spend his farewell address to the nation, which I might add many people did not even bother to watch, defending his position. A clear sign that he is worried about his legacy and how he will be portrayed in the history books. Bush’s eight-year term is indelibly marked by terrorism, two wars and recessions. He spoke from the East Room of the White House with just 112 hours left in office. I seriously doubt his farewell speech will do much to change the minds of Americans. President Bush spoke in glowing terms about our accomplishments in Iraq, as though we are best friends. But in reality, Iran is more likely the best friend of Iraq than America, which is reviled in parts of the Middle East. Afghanistan is a death trap, where no-one in their right mind would dare venture out without ample protection. News flash– the Taliban is running around the country once again! What would Hamid Karzai do if his American bodyguards left? He’d be assassinated or would have to leave the country himself. President Bush claimed that America’s “air, water, and lands are measurably cleaner.” Really President Bush? Who is doing the measuring? I suppose the same eco-unfriendly companies to which he handed his environmental policies. We entered the Spin-Zone with President Bush’s farewell speech.
This will be his final public appearance until he greets President-elect Barack Obama on Inauguration Day at the White House’s North Portico. Thank God. Bush called the inauguration of Obama, the first black president, a “moment of hope and pride” for America. “Standing on the steps of the Capitol will be a man whose story reflects the enduring promise of our land,” he said. That much I agree with him on. Sorry President Bush, I don’t think that history will be as kind to you as you have been to us. I am being sarcastic of course. January 20th can’t come fast enough for me. The real shame is that his father was a better president in his one term than he was in eight years. Thanks President Bush, for sticking it us one last time before you really say goodbye.
Ted Turner, who recently released a new book “Call Me Ted,” put his foot in his mouth once again. This time, on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” during which he blamed the U.S. for starting the battles with Vladimir Putin “by putting the Star Wars system in Czechoslovakia and Poland,” and when host Tom Brokaw recalled that Leonid Brezhnev reacted to Jimmmy Carter’s outreach by invading Afghanistan, Turner retorted with so-called moral equivalence: “Well, we invaded Afghanistan, too, and it’s a lot further — at least it’s on the border of the Soviet Union.” Brokaw called it “naked aggression on the part of the Russians at the time,” prompting Turner to charge: “Well, going into Iraq was naked aggression on the part of the United States.” But here’s the part that hit a nerve with me, Turner said that “the KGB, I think, was an honorable place to work” with “worthwhile” achievements.” Ted, are you still eating bison meat dude?
Mr. Turner, defended Putin’s KGB background by comparing it to someone who worked for the FBI:
We have an FBI and, and, and, and, and we’re not prejudiced against somebody who’s worked at the FBI. It’s an honorable place to work. And the KGB, I think, was an honorable place to work. And it, it gave people in the former Soviet Union, a communist country, an opportunity to do something important and worthwhile. Yeah, like oppressing people in captured nations and running gulags to suppress political dissent.
This is nothing new with Ted Turner. A few months ago, he applied similar moral equivalence in his description of Iraqi insurgents as “patriots” who simply “don’t like us because we’ve invaded their country” and “if the Iraqis were in Washington D.C., we’d be doing the same thing.” In the same interview on PBS, he predicted global warming will soon lead to cannibalism. Wow, has this man lost some marbles or what?
From the pre-recorded interview run on the Sunday, November 30 Meet the Press
TOM BROKAW: You met Vladimir Putin when he was just an aide to the mayor of St. Petersburg. He picked up you and Jane Fonda, to whom you were married at the time. But as you have watched him since then, most people see not in his eyes a soulful person, but the eyes — three letters, as someone has put it: KGB. That he is-
TED TURNER: Well, he had that background. But you know, we have an FBI and, and, and, and, and we’re not prejudiced against somebody who’s worked at the FBI. It’s an honorable place to work. And the KGB, I think, was an honorable place to work. And it, it gave people in the former Soviet Union, a communist country, an opportunity to do something important and worthwhile.
BROKAW: But in the meantime, it appears that he’s very much more interested in just causing difficulty for the United States, getting in our face in a manner of speaking.
TURNER: Well, wait. We’re the ones — in my opinion, we’re the ones that started that. We’re the ones that started by putting the Star Wars system in Czechoslovakia and Poland when they wanted to be part of it. We’ve said that that system is only to protect us from Iran or protect Europe from Iranian missiles. So why didn’t we cooperate with the Russians? Why have we constantly been pushing, we’ve been pushing on the Russians all the time.
BROKAW: Your friend, Jimmy Carter, tried to be friendly with Leonid Brezhnev, and for his friendliness what did Brezhnev do?
TURNER: Hell, I don’t remember. It was before I got involved.
BROKAW: He invaded Afghanistan. He invaded Afghanistan.
TURNER: Well, we invaded Afghanistan, too, and it’s a lot further — at least it’s on the border of the Soviet Union or the former Soviet Union or Russia. A lot of these countries have changed names several times.
BROKAW: But, Ted, don’t try to go there in terms of justifying that. I mean, it is, the fact is that the Russians, it was a naked aggression-
TURNER: Why can’t I try and justify it?
BROKAW: It was naked aggression on the part of the Russians at the time.
TURNER: Well, going into Iraq was naked aggression on the part of the United States.
BROKAW: Yeah, but big power politics and changing big power politics requires everyone to come to the table, and that includes the Russians, not just the United States.
TURNER: They’ll come if we invite them, I’m sure.
Ted Turner, go back to Montana and chill out. You just did a major hatchet job on your media promo for your book.
Photo: Sky News, Tania Zaetta with troops
Black Political Thought 